El Nino/La Nina is a cycle. It goes up - it goes down. It is like all the other cycles. They are all superimposed on a trend. The trend just steadily increases. So the next El Nino peak will be bigger than the last one and the one after that bigger still. You can see such peaks in the past. The really big ones are when an El Nino peak and a solar sunspot peak pretty much coincide. Each time it is bigger than the one before. It is true that the variations in these cycles is bigger than the trend so, in that sense, the trend is within normal variations. However, the trend itself is not a normal variation. It is an abnormal variation.

Methinks climatologists are like economists - 'where two or three are gathered together' there is a difference of opinion! Like Warwick, I am happy to pay a relatively small sum to support a change over from fossil fuels to renewables in order to cook my meals, heat my house and watch TV!

SatCure wrote:The world temperature has been on an extremely slow upward trend since the last ice age. It has nothing to do with human activities and actual measurements indicate that we'll be extremely lucky to see 2°C warming by the end of this century.

I've only been there once. I and a group of friends spent New Year at a hotel on the outskirts of Leeds. On New Year's day they put on a late brunch since we had been up late the night before. All the usual full English breakfast fare plus steak and a few other extras. After finishing that around 11 am we were taken on a tour which included lunch at the original Harry Ramsden's. Eating large haddock and chips plus a couple of pints of beer and Christmas pudding and custard was a bit of a stretch but two of us managed it. Bakalaria with skordalia, while very nice, isn't really the same.

Just got the new-style electricity bill. No sign on it of the discount. Previous bill was paid on-line on 9th Feb; the due date on the bill was 3 March, so well in time. (That one had a discount of 15% very plainly marked in a box below the guff on the left-hand side. Current bill shows that the previous bill has been paid, but can't find any reference anywhere to a discount and there is a big empty space below the left-hand side guff referred to above. Has the discount stopped now? Bob.

The discount only shows on every other bill. You get an ΕΚΚΑΘΑΡΙΣΤΙΚΟΣ bill that includes a calculation of the cost of the electricity consumed in a 4 month period, including the standing charge. That bill does not show a discount at all but the discount is calculated on the basis of that price. Thus if the consumption charge was €100 the discount would be calculated as €15. That €15 discount then appears on the next ΕΝΑΝΤΙ bill that doesn't have a calculation of the electricity consumed, assuming you pay the ΕΚΚΑΘΑΡΙΣΤΙΚΟΣ bill on time. Although you only get a discount every other bill it is based on a 4 month electricity charge so you do get a full discount. Hope that makes sense?

What always amazes me is that the Vikings farmed in southern Greenland and sailed happily around northern Iceland in their skimpy firs without freezing to death in their open wooden boats. Just can't believe that could happen today! Not to mention all the other stuff I learnt at Uni.